Mutually peeling the first member and the second member that are mutually joined and carrying out a required process on one of the first member and the second member that are mutually joined is implemented in various fields. For example, in a method for manufacturing a semiconductor chip, after forming a circuit on one surface of a wafer having a predetermined thickness, grinding the back surface on the opposite side of the circuit surface (referred to below as the circuit surface) and uniformly reducing the thickness of the wafer after pasting a support such as a protective film or a glass plate on the circuit face is known. The wafer thinned by this back surface grinding process is generally peeled from the support before being sent to a post-process such as dicing.
For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a semiconductor wafer processing method that can peel a semiconductor wafer supported on a supporting substrate via two-sided adhesive tape from the supporting substrate. In Patent Document 1, it is written: “after supporting and fixing a semiconductor wafer W to a supporting substrate 16 via adhesive layers 18 and 20 of a two-sided adhesive tape 14, predetermined processes such as, for example, grinding, etching, and dicing are performed on the semiconductor wafer W as illustrated in step S3 of FIG. 1.” (Paragraph 0030); “after performing the predetermined processes on the semiconductor wafer while supported and fixed to the supporting substrate 16, an irradiation of ultraviolet light is carried out to reduce peeling force, particularly when the adhesive layers 18 and 20 provided on both faces of the two-sided adhesive tape 14 are ultraviolet curable adhesives.” (Paragraph 0031); “after a transfer tape T sandwiches a work 10 fixed between a guiding member 36 and a fixing table 32, allowing the transfer tape T to proceed along a guide surface 38 of the guiding member 36 that guides in a direction away from the supporting substrate 16 of the work 10 fixed to the fixing table 32, and transporting the work 10 fixed to the fixing table 32 along with the proceeding of the transfer tape T allows the semiconductor wafer W to peel from the supporting substrate 16 of the work 10 fixed to the fixing table 32 and is transferred to the transfer tape T.” (Abstract).
Also, Patent Document 2 discloses a fragile member processing method that can stabilize and hold a fragile member when performing a process such as transporting or back surface grinding of a fragile member such as a semiconductor wafer, and can peel a fragile member without damaging it after the required processes are finished. In Patent Document 2, it is written: “a processing method for a fragile member 3 includes a step for re-peelably fixing the fragile member 3 on a flexible glass substrate 1, a step for performing a process on the fragile member 3, a step for fixing a side of the fragile member by a supporting means 11, and a step for curving the flexible glass substrate 1 and peeling it from the fragile member 3.” (Abstract); “in order to curve and peel the flexible glass substrate 1, for example, the end portion of the flexible glass substrate 1 is held, and lifted from the fragile member 3 and is moved in the folding direction of the flexible glass substrate . . . . When using a peeling jig 30, as illustrated in FIG. 3, a lower insertion plate 33 is inserted between the fragile member 3 and a temporary attaching means 2, an upper movable plate 32 is dropped, and the end portion of the flexible glass substrate 1 is held by the lower insertion plate 33 and the upper movable plate 32. Afterwards, as illustrated in FIG. 3, the end portion is lifted from the fragile member 3, moved in the folding direction of the flexible glass substrate 1 and peeled while curving the flexible glass substrate 1.” (Paragraph 0034).